AirBridge Cargo (ABC) has been awarded an Air Operators' Certificate (AOC) by the Russian Government, a key milestone in Volga-Dnepr Group's strategic development plan to operate financially independent and operationally strong scheduled and charter cargo airlines.

Stan Wraight, Vice President of Volga-Dnepr Group, responsible for scheduled operations, said, 'AirBridge has been working towards obtaining its own AOC as part of Volga-Dnepr's long-term strategy of having two core businesses each with its own business model, dedicated management team and transparent P&L. As well as ensuring clarity and focus within our scheduled business, this development also demonstrates greater business transparency to industry partners, such as aircraft suppliers, financial institutions, government authorities and, of course, most importantly, our customer base.'

AirBridge Cargo commenced operations in May 2004 and is the first Russian all-cargo airline to operate scheduled services in Europe, Russia and Asia - and soon in North and South America. It expects to carry more than 80,000 tons of cargo in 2006, generating sales revenues in excess of US$230 million.

With its current fleet of four Boeing 747 freighters, ABC offers 10 flights a week ex Frankfurt and four per week ex Amsterdam to Russia, providing daily and twice daily services to Moscow (SVO and DME) and five flights a week to Krasnoyarsk. ABC also operates seven services a week to and from Shanghai and four flights a week to and from Beijing in China in addition to four services a week from Nagoya to Russia and Europe and three flights serving Hong Kong from Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

ABC will take delivery of three more Boeing 747s in 2007. Two Boeing 747-200Fs will join its fleet in January and March. In time for its winter schedules, AirBridge Cargo will also take delivery of its first new-build Boeing 747-400ER Freighter. The airline has two 400ERFs on order with a list price of US$450 million. The second 400 will enter service in 2008.

AirBridge plans to launch its own Boeing 747ERF services to the Americas in 2007 using the Trans polar routing ex Krasnoyarsk. It will initially commence all-cargo flights to and from Houston and New York via Europe to Russia and beyond. The exact timing of the launch and routings will be announced later in the year.